Ciconia rejoices in this musical program to be able to focus on Escher’s masterpiece in a collaboration with The Hague’s museum Escher in Het Paleis, which, just like Ciconia, will celebrate its jubilee in 2023. Judith Kadee, curator at Escher in Het Paleis, will reveal to you all the details of Escher and his Metamorphoses in a lecture concert during the concert in The Hague. At the other concerts, Dick van Gasteren will talk about the backgrounds and underlying metamorphoses of the concert works, and their relationship with literature, visual arts and philosophy.

Perhaps the greatest and most exalted piece for string orchestra is Richard Strauss’ impressive Metamorphoses, who arranged the score for 23 individual solo voices: polyphony alla Bach, but with late romantic and early modern harmonies. An absolute masterpiece, based on a somber metamorphosis. It was written in memory of the destruction of World War II.

An extensive correspondence on the theme of Escher’s Metamorphoses has been preserved between the cousins M.C. and the composer Rudolph Escher. From the latter, Ciconia plays his Concerto for string orchestra, which was dedicated to the string players of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In his Variations, Tristan Keuris masterfully takes the listener into an ever-changing world with the development of a few germ cells.

Experience this search for the principles and backgrounds of the metamorphoses of Escher, Strauss, Koechlin and Keuris together with Ciconia.